Germany and Japan were winning at the beginning
of the war. However, vainness and over-confidence made both countries make to
fatal mistakes and lose the war. Most of Germany's allies, such as Austria and
Italy, were very weak. Italy was the first country from the axis powers to
surrender in 1943. It was followed by Germany in May 1945 and Japan in August
1945. Whatever side you were supporting, WW2 was the most brutal war of all
time.

Germany in Europe

Hitler
was always willing to establish an empire which would last for 1000 years. He
managed to solve many of Germany's problems, although he used dictatorship,
racism and violence. Fascists may have been in power today, but Hitler's main
mistake was that he was vain. In 1940, Hitler managed to invade 4 countries:
Denmark, Holland, France and Norway. By 1942, part of the USSR, most of Eastern
Europe, France, Denmark, Norway, Tunisia, Libya and part of Egypt were under
Hitler's control. Unlike the Romans, who needed hundreds of years to invade most
of Europe, Hitler wanted to invade the world in a few years. In June 1940,
Germany defeated Britain in Dunkirk, France. Although hundreds of weapons were
left behind, the British were proud that they managed to evacuate and rescue
every single French and English soldiers by using boats and with the help of
fishermen and volunteers. People still celebrate during June every year for this
victory.

The Desert Fox

In 1940, Britain started fighting
with Italy in North Africa. The Italians, who managed to invade much of North
Africa, were nearly defeated by the British before Mussolini asked Germany for
help. In 1941, Hitler decided to send one of the most famous generals of the
war, perhaps of all time, Erwin Rommel. Rommel has already made an achievement
after leading the victorious 7th Tank Division
in the German push to the English Channel. He became a lieutenant general and
was placed in command of the Afrika Korps. He achieved a brilliant record as a
tactician in desert warfare. He managed to drive the British from Libya to El
Alamein, about 150 km west of Alexandria in Egypt. By June 1942, Rommel was
promoted and became a field marshal. He was nicknamed the Desert Fox for his
cunning tactics. In 1942, he lost an important battle in El Alamein, which made
another British general gain fame: Montgomery. There were many battles between
Germany and Britain in North Africa and both sides retreated several times.
However, subsequent reverses forced Rommel back to Tunis and he returned home to
Germany in 1943 before the Germans surrendered. Although, Rommel failed to
defeat America and Britain in North Africa, he's still remembered for his
tactics. In July 1944, he was accused of aiding Hitler in his criminal acts and
he decided to commit suicide by drinking a poison rather than being punished and
executed by the allies.

The Many and the Few

By 1940, Hitler was invading most of
Europe but one man was still determined to defeat him: Winston Churchill.
Churchill became Britain's Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. Joseph Stalin was
fighting against Finland and he was not willing to challenge Hitler while public
opinion in America didn't want to interfere in this war. Britain was
fighting against Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic using submarines and
ships. Although
they had only 28 submarines near Britain, the Germans were building more,
putting Britain in a dangerous position. No one was winning the Battle of the
Atlantic so Hitler decided to invade Britain. But that meant that the German
pilots must cross the English Channel; Hitler would not risk using ships unless
the British planes were destroyed. For that reason, the Battle of Britain was
fought in the air. It was the first battle in history to be fought by aeroplanes
only. The German pilots began to bomb airfields. By September 17th, 1940,
Germany was defeated in the Battle of Britain. But why? The Luftwaffe (German
air force) was not big enough to attack the RAF in the English Channel; the
British aircraft factories produced a lot of planes while the German leaders
underestimated the ability of Britain to replace its bases. Winston Churchill
was an outstanding leader while the pilots were incredible. However, the most
important reason was the radar. A scientist called Watson-Watt has managed to
invent a machine which could detect planes hundreds of metres away. This machine
called the RADAR (RAdio Detecting and Ranging) was used by the British in the
Battle of Britain. After the battle Churchill said, "Never was so much owed
by so Many (British people) to so Few (British pilots)."When Germany was
defeated, Hitler decided to attack Britain during the night. This was called the
Blitzkreig (German for lightning). Thousands of British people were killed by
the Blitz.

Pearl Harbour

While America was making peace talks with Japan,
the Japanese air force destroyed the US fleet in Pearl Harbour. After 30
minutes, the harbour was destroyed. On the next day, Franklin Roosevelt,
America's President, declared war on Japan, Italy and Germany. The American
involvement in WW2 was the second most important reason why Germany lost the
war. By December 1941, Germany was fighting against some of the strongest
countries in the world: the USA, USSR, Britain and France. To make matters even
worse, Germany had only one strong country on its side, Japan, while Austria and
Italy were not strong at all. In 1942, Japan's expansion continued after
invading East India from Holland, Philippines, Singapore and Malaya from
Britain.

The War of the People

Many people call World War 2, the, "People's
War." WW2 was the first war in which more citizens were killed than
soldiers. The war affected the lives of more than 350 million people. Many
citizens contributed in this war. In Russia, millions of partisans fought in the
war. They sabotaged, cut off telephone wires and attack German soldiers.
Although Stalin was a wicked dictator, he was an outstanding war leader. He
managed to take the land Lenin gave away to the Germans in 1917. When the
Germans attacked Russia, Stalin ordered the citizens to move all petrol stations
and factories so that Hitler's forces couldn't take advantage of them.

Many cities in Europe were totally damaged.
Thousands of people died at the beginning of the war in France and England.
Cities like London, Manchester, Liverpool and Coventry were damaged. There were
many volunteers in the war, like the LDV (Local Defensive Volunteers). 95,000
British civilians and 173,000 French civilians were killed in this war. However,
during the last 3 years in the war, the allies started bombing German cities.
More than 800,000 German civilians were killed and cities like Cologne were
totally damaged.

The Home and Kitchen Fronts were very important
in this war. Germany and Japan prevented a lot of food from reaching Britain. At
that time, two thirds of food in Britain was imported. Many programmes on radios
encouraged women to be more economic and cook more food for soldiers and many
poor people. The government introduced the system of rationing which forced all
people, whether they were poor or rich to buy a limited amount of food from
their nearby groceries. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were evacuated from
towns and cities to live in villages during the Blitzkreig.

The most appalling aspect of the Nazi regime was
the persecution of the Jews. Violent attacks on Jews in Germany began in the
1930s and were continued in all the countries the Germans occupied. Death camps
were established for the sole purpose of eliminating the Jews, gypsies, black
people, Jehovah's witnesses and communists. Hitler decided to start the Final
Solution in 1942 which killed millions of people. 9 million people were killed
in death camps, 6 million of them were Jews.

One fatal mistake

In June 1942, Hitler decided to invade Russia. At
first, his army was crashing the Russians who had very old weapons. In August
1943, Hitler ordered his armies in Russia to capture Stalingrad. By November
they had taken most of the city. However, as winter started, the Russians
counter-attacked. Cut-off, short of food, and without warm clothing in the
Russian winter, the German troops surrendered. It was so called in Russia that
the oil in the tanks froze and that Hitler asked all of the women in Munich to
give away their coats to the soldiers! Also, the Russian roads were pathetic and
the Russians were very determined. Hitler made the same mistake Napoleon had
made. The German defeat was a major turning point in the war. To make matter
even worse for Hitler, the allies invaded Sicily and Italy surrendered in
September 1943.. Although the war did go on, for Germany, the war was over!
Hitler was no longer was seen making speeches.

D-Day and the Red Army

The Red Army, or the Soviet Army, started driving
Germany out of the USSR. In January 1944, Leningrard was free. By April, the
Russians invaded Romania. In December, 1944, the USSR, conquered Hungary and
Yugoslavia. The Soviet Army captured Warsaw in January 1945. The Russians were
willing to invade all of the land between Moscow and Berlin.

In 1944, the allies decided to invade France.
They were willing to land their forces in Normandy. This operation was called
D-Day. However, the British wanted to trick the Germans by telling them that
they were going to land in Calais. But how was this done? The SOE (Special
Operations Executive), wrote a message in code ordering a general to send his
army to Calais. The message was put into a pocket of a dead English soldier. The
body was thrown by a helicopter somewhere near Greece. The German intelligence
found the message and the German soldiers went to Calais. By June 1944, France
was free. In February 1945, the allies invaded western Germany. By, May 1945,
the Russian army approached Berlin. The Russian soldiers found Hitler dead in
his underground shelter. Hitler is believed to have committed suicide. This
marked the end of the war in Europe.

The Atomic Bomb

Although the Germans surrendered, the Japanese
didn't. Their soldiers were more determined than any other people in the world.
They believed that they were born to fight. Although the Americans were driving
them, they believed that they should do something. President Harry Truman, who
succeeded in Franklin D. Rossevelt after a heart attack, learnt that the
American group of scientists have conducted a successful experiment of nuclear
fission in a squash court. After a few month, Truman saw the first atomic bomb
test in the desert of New Mexico. In July 1945, he decided to bomb a Japanese
industrial city called Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was separated into small
pieces and each piece was carried by a ship. All of the ships met somewhere in
the Far East and an aeroplane flew towards Hiroshima. Hiroshima was destroyed on
the 6th of August 1945 and 800,000 people were killed in a few seconds. The
Japanese didn't surrender yet. Another city was bombed, Nagasaki, on the 9th of
August 1945. Many people believe that America shouldn't have dropped the atomic
bombs. On the 3rd of September 1945, the Japanese signed an armistice with
America.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE WAR:-

Results of the War

World War II's basic statistics
qualify it as by far the greatest war in history in terms of human and material
resources expended. In all, 61 countries with 1.7 billion people, three-fourths
of the world's population, took part. A total of 110 million persons were
mobilized for military service.

Most statistics on
the war are only estimates. The war's vast and chaotic sweep made uniform record
keeping impossible. Some governments lost control of the data, and some resorted
to manipulating it for political reasons.

A rough consensus
has been reached on the total cost of the war. In terms of money spent, it has
been put at more than $1 trillion, which makes it more expensive than all other
wars combined. The human cost, not including more than 5 million Jews killed in
the Holocaust who were indirect victims of the war, is estimated to have been 55
million deadó25 million of those military and 30 million civilian.

Country

Soldierskilled

Largest no. of soldiers on
duty at any one time

No. of soldiers mobilized

Civilianskilled

Moneylost

Australia

29,295

x

x

243

x

Britain

271,311

x

x

95,297

320 billion $

British Empire

452,000

8,720,000

x

60,000

x

Canada

39,319

x

x

unknown

x

China

3,500,000

5,000,000

x

10,000,000

100 billion $

Czechoslovakia

10,000

x

x

330,000

x

France

205,00

x

x

173,000

x

Germany

3,300,000

10,938,000

17,000,000

800,000

472 billion $**

Hungary

120,000

x

x

280,000

x

India

36,092

x

x

79,498

x

Japan

1,380,000

7,193,000

x

933,000

608 billion $

Italy

279,820

x

x

93,000

94 billion $

Poland

120,000

x

x

5,300,000

x

Romania

200,000

x

x

465,000

x

USSR

13,600,000

12,500,000

30,000,000

7,720,000

200 billion $

Concentration camps

x

x

x

9,000,000

x

Yugoslavia

300,000

x

x

1,300,000

x

USA

292,131

12,450,000

16,000,000

5,662

341 billion $*

*The U.S. spent the most
money on the war, an estimated $341 billion, including $50 billion for
lend-lease supplies, of which $31 billion went to Britain, $11 billion to the
Soviet Union, $5 billion to China, and $3 billion to 35 other countries.

When the United Nations was set up, it decided to split
Germany into 2 countries: West and East Germany. They reunited in 1990 when the
Berlin wall was destroyed. Many Nazis who knew that they would be punished and
hanged, decided to commit suicide. East Germany became a communist country.
Stalin committed many crimes in Hungary and Romania before he died in
1953.

Mussoilini escaped to a small island in 1943. In 1945, a group
of Italian nationalists assassinated him. A few years later, the people of Italy
decided to get rid of King Victor Emmanuel. Japan didn't get rid of its Emperor,
Hiro Hito, but he lost power and Japan's real ruler is it's Prime Minister who's
elected democratically. Germany, Italy and Japan have a limited and small army,
and unlike the Treaty of Versailles, none of the countries are allowed to remove
the limits of their armies.

The United Nations

After the war, a group of nations formed an
organization called the United Nations. At first, it had fewer than 50
countries, now it has more than 180 members. Many countries after the war
decided to become independent and not to become colonies or protectorates. Some
countries, like India, have done that peacefully. However, some countries had to
fight to gain independence. Algeria lost moRe than 1 million lives to drive the
French out of Algeria. Now, there are very few colonies in the world. In 1948,
the UN decided to give Palestine to the Jews so that the Holocaust won't happen
again. 5 countries in the UN have the veto. This means that the winners of WW2;
China, America, Russia, France and Britain have the right to reject any decision
made by the UN.

The Wars after the War

The Cold War:-
between the USSR and the USA. It ended after the collapse of the USSR.

Arab-Israeli Wars:- the Arab countries and Israel
hate each other. 1948 War, the 6 Day War and the Yom Kippur War.